Saturday, July 14, 2007

Saturday 07/14 A.M. Quickie:
Cuban, Beckham, Freeney, Sheffield, Durant, More!

Cuban and the Cubs, Cont'd: This story continues to send exciting shockwaves around baseball. Who DOESN'T want to see this happen? (Oh, right: Bud Selig and other MLB owners.)

I wonder what Jason Giambi told George Mitchell yesterday...

The Phillies are "stuck" at loss No. 9,999 after beating the Cardinals last night. Will "10K" happen today?

Beckham introduced in L.A.: And it is the craziest MLS p.r. event ever. Steinberg emerged out of his Bog to get the front-page coverage in the Post about it. Great scene-setter.

NBA Summer: Durant finally has his breakout game. "Finally," of course, is relative. Whatever: KD poured in 32 points in a loss to Golden State, where Durant went head-to-head with Warriors summer sensation Marco Belinelli, who had 16 points (and has slowed down considerably since his breakout debut game). As impressive as Durant's 32 was, keep in mind that he was 9-for-23 on FG shooting to make it happen.

More of Friday's Summer (Rookie) Notables: Al Horford (18 pts, 6 reb in summer debut)... Aaron Brooks (23 points)... Oleksey Pecherov (26 pts, 14 reb)... Javaris Crittenton (16 pts, 6 ast), though the Lakers gave up 120(!) points to the Nuggets... Big Baby Davis (16 pts, 9 reb)... Al Thornton (19 pts, 10 reb)... Mike Conley (9 pts, 8 ast)... DJ Strawberry (13 pts, 9 ast), who is looking like one of the steals of the draft, for the Suns... Thaddeus Young, like Horford playing in the Rocky Mtn Revue, had 19...

Nets re-sign Vince Carter: Again, if you're a Nets fan, this isn't thrilling news.

Wizards re-sign Deshawn Stevenson: Which absolutely sucks if you're a Wizards fan, because now they're going to have to trade the rights to Euro sensation Juan Carlos Navarro. So essentially the Wizards have traded Stevenson for Navarro, which will go down as one of the worst trades in team history (and for the Wiz, that's saying a lot). Let's hope Ernie Grunfeld can pull something out of his hat to re-sign JCN.

If you want an underrated NBA signing, it's Steve Blake going to the Blazers. This seems like a no-brainer to me. How could a pass-first PG NOT want to have a dominant center to get the ball to? And how could a team building around a dominant center NOT want a pass-first PG?

The Darko Milicic Image Rehabilitation Project began yesterday, when the Grizzlies not only gave him a sizeable salary ($7M per for 3 years), but virtually swiped him from the Magic. If everyone is agreeing that signing Darko was a GOOD thing – a SMART thing – instead of a "WTF?!" thing, then the rehab has begun.

Colts re-sign Dwight Freeney: He'll be one of the NFL's highest-paid players, as he should be. His $30 million signing bonus is the highest-ever for a defensive player.

Speaking of rich deals: Ichiro, 5Y/$90M. And worth it.

Bud won't sponsor Dale Jr. on his new team: Wow, what an opportunity for one of A-B's rivals. I think Miller pays whatever it takes.

Rickey being Rickey: Henderson becomes the Mets' new first base coach. He's come a long way as a Met since ducking out of a playoff game to play cards in the clubhouse.

Looking ahead to next week, people will be talking about Gary Sheffield's fiery interview with HBO "Real Sports" airing Tuesday night, where he accuses Joe Torre of treating black players differently than white players. He also admitted to using the "cream" and the "clear," but denied taking steroids. Sheffield re-affirmed the interview details yesterday.

-- D.S.

10 comments:

hskr dave said...

Miller already has a sponsorship, and very doubtful they would pull it. Coors might step in, but I also heard Mountain Dew might step back in. Junior and their "rebel" image would go well, plus new teammate Jeff Gordon has Pepsi.

Jen said...

As I read it, Bud really CAN'T sponsor Jr. on his new team. Both sides were amicable when commenting on the situation.

mirthywvu said...

No....not Mark Cuban to the Cubs...the blasted Pirates need to go on sale now, we were supposed to get Cuban, a Pittsburgh boy coming home, it's the only hope we had!

jhawkjjm said...

$30 million signing bonus for Freeny? That's ridiculuous for a one dimensional end. I don't know enough of the details but how is that $30 million being charged against the cap and how much is he guaranteed on top of the $30 million? This could hurt the Colts in the future and push them against the cap.

A side effect of that contract is the ripple it will cause over the next few years for other defensive players. If Freeny can get that much in a signing bonus, imagine what more complete players like Julius Peppers and Richard Seymour will be asking for.

James said...

A-B still has a personal services contract with Junior for another year or two, presumably to the exclusion of other brewers. So Miller could step in and sponsor the car, but wouldn't be able to use Junior (as opposed to the car) in any ads until his personal contract with A-B is up.

Travis said...

Junior has said he will not be under a personal services contract with Bud next season.

He says that dont matter either cause he still likes the taste of Budwesier and will still drink it.

It seems Mountain Dew maybe the top sponsor of his Hendrick car with pepsi on it for some races

Paul L Carter said...

Beckham introduced in L.A.: And it is the craziest MLS p.r. event ever.

When the wire serices lead photos show the crush of press covering the event instead of the event itself, you know it's crazy.

CoCo said...

Please for the good of the Cubs let Cubes in! MLB will be so much more interesting.

Joey said...

I'd rather the Cubs not get Cuban. I'd like to see them to continue to be the lovable losers. With Cuban, they wouldn't be lovable at all and the bleacher bums would revolt.

Kevin Hayward said...

When I heard Ichiro was close to signing a 5 year, $100 million dollar deal, I thought "worth it." $90 million? That's a steal.